Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, January 17, 2001

EAST BAY

The first thing you notice about Jin Ling, a snappy Chinese restaurant in Berkeley's Elmwood district, is the crazy approach to design.

It starts with a rainbow painted on the gate at the entrance. Inside, the airy space is divided by half-walls of faux brick hanging from the ceiling at odd angles. Other walls are painted light blue with yellow paint strokes. Tiny glass lamps with a hand-blown look hang from thin black wires.

In addition to a few Cantonese-style Chinese-American standards like sweet- and-sour pork, the menu features hearty dishes with touches of vinegar and pepper. If you order nothing else, try dumplings like plump potstickers or shoa loong bow, little purses of ground pork.

Other dishes, like the doughy battered house duck, stumble. But the Singapore rice stick noodles are great, flavored with curry and studded with shrimp.

PRICES: $$

NOISE RATING: THREE BELLS

CONTRA COSTA

Taheri's

2 Stars

Surviving for more than a couple of years in today's fickle restaurant market is no small feat. But six years after it opened, the modest Taheri's Mediterranean Restaurant in Walnut Creek has managed to fashion a solid business out of moderate prices, an uncomplicated menu and a friendly crew.

Though Taheri's sits smack in the middle of a busy and growing office building zone, you have to look closely to find it, behind a hedge and holding down a corner of a parking garage. (Yes, they validate.)

There's little that's bold on Taheri's menu, mostly the tried and true trattoria-like mix of pizzas, pastas and sauteed and grilled items, with a few Mediterranean specialties.

Winners include a very good Mediterranean platter -- dolmas, hummus, tabbouleh, eggplant puree and olives -- served with delicious freshly baked flat bread; fresh and generous house and Caesar salads; an excellent roasted chicken; and a simple but good chicken kebab touched with saffron.

A margherita pizza was sound, but the thick crust was strangely tough. A tender, massive vegetable lasagna needed less of a too-thick, too-acidic marinara sauce. But a vegetarian angel hair pasta was light in its less aggressive marinara.

PRICES: $

NOISE RATING: THREE BELLS

PENINSULA

Cafe Maremonti

1 1/2 Stars

Ismail Jan Unlu has a signature style. Part decor, part ambience, part food,

it's apparent at Cafe La Scala in Burlingame, Scala Mia and Cafe Silan in Menlo Park and Silan in Los Altos. In November he opened Cafe Maremonti on Palo Alto's California Avenue, and his mark is all over it.

The space that used to house Chez Sophie has been reinvented with lavish murals, faux marble archways and lots of other Mediterranean embellishments.

I was told that the restaurant focused on "Mediterranean seafood," but I was hard pressed to differentiate the fare from the restaurateur's other Italian outposts.

With a guileless, more-is-more aesthetic, plates are chock-full of capers, olives, frizzled leeks, chiffonades of radicchio, tomato concasse, herbs and lots of other Italianate doodads. Unfortunately, all that has the effect of making dishes look and taste disappointingly the same. Service is full of fits and starts, and has a ways to go. Address: CAFE MAREMONTI: 201 California Ave. (near Birch), Palo Alto; (650) 322-8586. Lunch Monday-Saturday;

PRICES: $$

NOISE RATING: TWO BELLS

RATINGS KEY
FOUR STARS: Extraordinary
THREE STARS: Excellent
TWO STARS: Good
ONE STAR: Fair
(box): Poor
.
$ Inexpensive: entrees under $10
$$ Moderate: $10-$17
$$$ Expensive: $18-$24
$$$$ Very Expensive: more than $25
Prices based on main courses. When entrees fall between these categories, the
prices of
appetizers help determine the dollar ratings.
.
ONE BELL: Pleasantly quiet (under 65 decibels)
TWO BELLS: Can talk easily (65-70)
THREE BELLS: Talking normally gets difficult (70-75)
FOUR BELLS: Can only talk in raised voices (75-80)
BOMB: Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
.
Chronicle critics make every attempt to remain anonymous.
All meals are paid for by the Chronicle.
Star ratings are based on a minimum of three visits.
Ratings are updated continually based on a least one revisit.